Saturday, February 28, 2009

Love Me, I'm a Liberal

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The late Phil Ochs, folk singer and author of "Draft Dodger Rag" and "There But for Fortune", offered his opinion of modern liberalism, which seems to hold just as true today.

Love Me, I'm a Liberal, by Phil Ochs

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal


Cross posted at Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Music

John Denver - Rocky Mountain High /Calypso

A Three Minute Conservative Primer- By a 13 Year Old


CPAC, February 27, 2009


His name is Jonathan Krohn, and I think we'll be hearing a lot more from this one in the years to come!
His book is called "Define Conservatism for Past, Present and Future Generations"

Hat tip Hot Air
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

There’s a reason people like me argue that elections have consequences, and it’s because of Barack Obama’s tax and spending proposals announced yesterday. Obama’s massive $315 billion tax increase that violates a basic fairness principle in our tax code: that no matter who you are, we don’t count a dollar of income for taxable purposes once deductions for things like charitable donations and mortgage interest are taken into account. Contrary to the White House’s smarmy insinuations, the poor and the rich are treated exactly the same under current law.

The White House proposal would reach into these deductions and effectively levy an additional tax of 7% on charitable contributions and mortgage interest (and up to 11.6% if Obama’s tax increases go into effect) for those in the highest tax bracket — in other words, those with the most ability to support America’s charities.


-Patrick Ruffini

Friday, February 27, 2009

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB is actress Gina Gershon!

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Quote du jour

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

-C. S. Lewis

Thursday, February 26, 2009

This Last Week's Poll

This Last Week's Poll: US Attorney General Eric Holder has said they we are a "nation of cowards" when it comes to race:

He was right on the money! ( 10%)

He was dead wrong. ( 50%)

He's right, only not the way he meant it! ( 30%)

He should have used more temperate language. ( 20%)


(Totals reflect the ability to choose more than one answer.)

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

Quote du jour

I say, when you’re paying to buy the pizza, it’s okay to have a slice. Now, if you were a liberal Democratic governor and you opposed military spending, are you not going to take National Guard funding? If you were a liberal who opposed No Child Left Behind, are you going to take federal funding in education? So I’m wondering why that standard is only being applied now to conservatives.

-Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Medal of Honor

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Corporal Duane E. Dewey


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a gunner in a machinegun platoon of Company E, in action against enemy aggressor forces. When an enemy grenade landed close to his position while he and his assistant gunner were receiving medical attention for their wounds during a fierce night attack by numerically superior hostile forces, Cpl. Dewey, although suffering intense pain, immediately pulled the corpsman to the ground and, shouting a warning to the other marines around him. bravely smothered the deadly missile with his body, personally absorbing the full force of the explosion to save his comrades from possible injury or death. His indomitable courage, outstanding initiative, and valiant efforts in behalf of others in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon Cpl. Dewey and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.


Corporal Dewey: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes




http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/living/living_war_wwii.html

There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Quote du jour

Or perhaps calling views you disagree with “extreme” and accusing those who hold them of having dishonorable motives is just a clever way of saying that you don’t want an “honest conversation” at all.

-Jonah Goldberg, on Eric Holder's "Nation of Cowards" speech

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Quote du jour

My father was a man of devout, unflinching, sometimes exasperating Catholic faith. He believed absolutely in heaven and hell. I lost (or misplaced) my faith, but I find myself on this anniversary hoping that I’m wrong, and that he’s there, correcting God’s grammar. I have on my desk an editorial cartoon showing him arriving at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter whispering to an angel, “I’m going to need a bigger dictionary.”

-Christopher Buckley, on the anniversary of the passing of WFB

Monday, February 23, 2009

Cartoon Criticism in a Post Bush World

This cartoon has crosshairs all over it:

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I mean just look at the self-deprecating way he depicts cartoonists! Slightly goofy looking guy with a bad haircut...bow tie and suspenders over a plaid shirt? C'mon! These guys are artists!

BTW, Brian Farrington doesn't strike me as a guy that fits with Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" speech!

Gun Permits for Vasectomies

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Trust the government that fears your...gun?


John Lott, a serious individual for whom I have a lot of respect, posted this article about men undergoing vasectomies in exchange for fast tracking a gun permit.

KOLKATA // A government scheme offering fast-tracked gun permits to men who agree to undergo a vasectomy is being criticised by the men who say officials are reneging on the deal.

One year after it started, men in one of India’s most violent regions who underwent the procedure in order to arm themselves for protection are still waiting for their permits.


Aside from the obvious perils involved in trusting the government to follow through on any of its promises, the irreverent side of me could not help but point out that the government was offering these men gun permits in exchange for them shooting blanks! Heh.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

"I feel like I've been driving in circles all day!"

-unidentified NASCAR driver

Quote du jour

I would like evolution to join the roster of other discredited religions, like the Cargo Cult of the South Pacific. Practitioners of Cargo Cult believed that manufactured products were created by ancestral spirits, and if they imitated what they had seen the white man do, they could cause airplanes to appear out of the sky, bringing valuable cargo like radios and TVs. So they constructed “airport towers” out of bamboo and “headphones” out of coconuts and waited for the airplanes to come with the cargo. It may sound silly, but in defense of the Cargo Cult, they did not wait as long for evidence supporting their theory as the Darwinists have waited for evidence supporting theirs.

— Ann Coulter

Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Real Author of the Stimulus Bill



Congressman Sterkfontein,D- Maropeng

No wonder the Post cartoon was so upsetting!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Update: The lovely Queen Zel has dubbed him "Australopithecus Stimulus". Heh.

Quote du jour

With the Bush years now just a memory, Kos's blog has lost its mission, and its increasingly rudderless posts read like talking points from the Democratic National Committee.

-Time Magazine on the Five Most Overrated Blogs

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Separated at Birth?

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A Little Saturday Night Music

Alison Krauss and Union Station - You Say it Best When You Say Nothing at All

Taking Chance on HBO Tonight



I hadn't been paying this too much attention, since I haven't bothered to hook up to cable or satellite since relocating to California, but I understand that this film does justice to the story. If you have HBO, you might want to tune in tonight.

For those of you cableless like me, the story can be found here.

Hat tip Blackfive
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Seeing Racism Where None Exists

Lee Camp, "comedian" has this cartoon up on the Puffington Host:

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a take off on this cartoon, which was not controversial to anyone with an above room temperature IQ:

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Congress wrote the Porkulus bill, not Obama! Unless you want to find some hidden antipathy for Pelosi and Reid in this cartoon, likening the Post cartoonist to a Klansman was not just over the top, it was idiotic!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Cracks in The One's™ Facade

Saw this over at What Bubba Knows:

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Too funny!

"Today Does Mark the Beginning of the End"

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When Obama signed the massive Porkulus spending bill, couldn't his speech writer have found something even slightly less ominous to say?

Eric Holder, Race Baiter

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The country is in an economic crisis. Many people are fearful of losing their homes and their jobs, and many are looking to Washington for leadership. We are still engaging terrorists at home and abroad. The government has embarked upon a massive spending project that could cripple the economy even further, so what do we need at this point? How about some good old fashioned race baiting?

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."
Inflammatory language always sounds best from a position of power! A "nation of cowards" ? The first black US attorney general under the first black US president (the one who was going to transcend race...remember?) doesn't want to praise the US for how far we've come in making the color of a one's skin less important than the nature of one's character, but throws a little gasoline on the fire of race relations...perhaps the one area that was not in crisis in 2009! Don't the politicians in Washington have enough on their hands without creating an additional crisis to control? Or is this just the prelude to some government program to fix something that wasn't broken?

Lame attempt to mitigate the disaster:
Matt Miller, a spokesman for Holder, said later the attorney general used "provocative words to be clear that Americans of all races should stop avoiding the difficult issues of race."


Riiiight! all of us here in "post-racial" America want to use provocative words to describe racial relations here in the US!
If this is an example of the best Eric Holder has to bring to the office, Obama would have been better off to choose Rodney King! At least, as a public speaker, "Can't we all just get along?" ranks far higher than "nation of cowards" to bring about the ethnic melting pot that Holder gives lip service to!

Socks the Cat is Dead

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...along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, apparently!


You've probably heard the news by now...Socks the token White House pet, abandoned after his usefulness as political prop had ended, has died of mouth and jaw cancer.
What hasn't been reported is that the body was found in Fort Marcy Park!

Quote du jour

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

-Margaret Thatcher

Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB is the latest in a long line of Lois Lanes...Erika Durance!

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A Million Dollars a Day Since the Birth of Christ

...and you still haven't outspent the POStimulus bill! American Issues project ad:



Hat tip Wizbang

Quote du jour

There is absolutely no national need which requires that the Secretary of Education be driven around Washington in federally funded limo. What national interest is served by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development be granted a car and driver?

Much less Deputy Secretaries, Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Deputy Assistant Secretaries or whatever comes after them.

-Rich Galen

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Quote du jour

President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.
In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics.

-Bradly R. Schiller

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This Last Week's Poll

This Last Week's Poll: Southwest Airplanes had the audacity to place a swimsuit model on the side of one of their planes. Was it:

No big deal! You see the same thing in supermarkets or on the beach! (7%).

Politically incorrect and offensive to some passengers (15%)

Nice to look at while waiting for your delayed flight (38%) tied with

All of the above. (38%)

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

The Medal of Honor

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Hospital Corpsman Third Class William R. Charette


Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action against enemy aggressor forces during the early morning hours. Participating in a fierce encounter with a cleverly concealed and well-entrenched enemy force occupying positions on a vital and bitterly contested outpost far in advance of the main line of resistance, HC3c. Charette repeatedly and unhesitatingly moved about through a murderous barrage of hostile small-arms and mortar fire to render assistance to his wounded comrades. When an enemy grenade landed within a few feet of a marine he was attending, he immediately threw himself upon the stricken man and absorbed the entire concussion of the deadly missile with his body. Although sustaining painful facial wounds, and undergoing shock from the intensity of the blast which ripped the helmet and medical aid kit from his person, HC3c. Charette resourcefully improvised emergency bandages by tearing off part of his clothing, and gallantly continued to administer medical aid to the wounded in his own unit and to those in adjacent platoon areas as well. Observing a seriously wounded comrade whose armored vest had been torn from his body by the blast from an exploding shell, he selflessly removed his own battle vest and placed it upon the helpless man although fully aware of the added jeopardy to himself. Moving to the side of another casualty who was suffering excruciating pain from a serious leg wound, HC3c. Charette stood upright in the trench line and exposed himself to a deadly hail of enemy fire in order to lend more effective aid to the victim and to alleviate his anguish while being removed to a position of safety. By his indomitable courage and inspiring efforts in behalf of his wounded comrades, HC3c. Charette was directly responsible for saving many lives. His great personal valor reflects the highest credit upon himself and enhances the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.


Corpsman Charette: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes




http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/living/living_war_wwii.html

There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Quote du jour

Well, and Pelosi is right. It is historic. It is probably the greatest abomination in American legislative history. It is not only the content here. The content which, as we know, including $8 billion for rapid transit which includes a pet project of Senator Reid of Nevada, which is a mag-lev monstrosity that connects Anaheim, Disneyland and Vegas, known as the "Fantasyland Express", exactly what the country needs in dire economic straits.

It is the process. I'm not sure any senator or member of the House has read it. Obama had come into office and promised a new way of doing business. It would be open, transparent, and there would be a comment, that the people would see it. In fact, it's been largely behind the closed doors. There is stuff in here that we'll discover tomorrow and the day after, after it's been passed and signed.

-Charles Krauthammer, on the stimulus bill

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Last Supper

From the Exurban League:

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Too funny!

The Overweening Praise of "The One"

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One of the joys (and perils) of blogging, is that you may take up your lance and tilt at any particular windmill (sometimes literal windmills!) that takes your fancy. Sometimes, to mix a metaphor, there simply isn't enough "grist for the mill", so this is going to be a smörgåsbord of liberal hypocrisy and hubris with a little media fawning thrown in for good measure.

How many times have you heard some talking head praise Obama for getting the stimulus bill passed in record time, as though it were a mark of his leadership? Let me see...how would one possibly lead Congress to spend billions of dollars on projects designed to enhance their own political power and ideological leanings? This is a tough one! I liken it to having a flock of sheep penned inside a high fence with a pack of ravening wolves outside. To provide this sort of "leadership" to the wolves, one merely opens the gate! ("Never have I seen a gate opened with such deliberation or in that short a period of time!" gushed the reporters!)

And one of the talking points that I heard more than one Democrat utter in defense of Porkzilla, was that we need to invest
"to eliminate our dependency on foreign oil".
That sounds like a phrase that tested well in focus groups! Unfortunately, the twits who were uttering it (like slimy Senator Chuck Schumer) had all voted against domestic drilling for oil for years in places like the desolate northernmost tip of ANWR and off of our own coasts (where currently other nations such as China are drilling), where we might find an actual solution to dependence on foreign oil. But, no! Here the Democratic use this phrase as a code word for wind power, unproven alternative energy schemes and insulating and retrofitting government buildings!

I have yet to hear one reporter challenge any of the Senators or other Congress Critters on exactly how or when their "windy" proposals will end dependence on foreign oil. Perhaps, it is because like most of the non-existent "stimulus" in the stimulus bill, we knew they were lying about other things too? Or maybe, hidden in the bowels of the massive stimulus bill, like the provisions for "net neutrality" is a government mandated Tire Inflation Program?
Here's a "TIP": Tires aren't the only things subject to inflation over the next four years!

So, in summation, Obama's "heroic" leadership efforts were roughly equivalent to pointing drunken sailors to the nearest bar, thereby making the press swoon!
Congress co-opts the language of the Drill Here, Drill Now crowd to give the illusion that they are serious about ending dependence on foreign oil when really they're more interested in funding little boutique green projects that will make their left-wing loony constituents happy.
(Here, the "watchdog" press rolls over and plays dead!)

I guess I'm just looking for a little honesty from our press and our politicians. And unfortunately, getting about as little as possible. In the immortal words of Jerry Reid:
He who expects little will not be disappointed!


I am seldom disappointed in either our elected officials or the MSM! Heh.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.

-William Faulkner

Quote du jour

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt to boot!"
-Henry Morgenthau, FDR's Treasury secretary

Monday, February 16, 2009

Quote du jour

Gary Wolfram of Hillsdale College notes that the size of the stimulus -- the House-Senate compromise bill is $789 billion -- is just slightly less than the amount of all U.S. currency in circulation, and is larger than the entire federal budget was until 1983.
-George Will

Sunday, February 15, 2009

What We've Learned About "Stimulus" So Far

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Congress and the Piece Of Stimulus


Congress has passed the most pork laden piece of legislation in the history of the Republic. (Perhaps one of the reasons they use the word "Congress". Like "sexual congress", the public is being screwed!)
Let's review a few of the principles involved in this top down Piece of Stimulus (POS):

Businesses should not reward their top performers by taking them on trips to expensive resorts.


This, of course, would only benefit the airlines, the hotels, the cabs and rental car companies, the hotel staff, restaurants, gift shops and whatever state, federal and local agencies tax the employees and profits of all of the above.
The one exception to this, would be if they took a heavily subsidized train to a resort in a state like Nevada, where a politician was in a highly placed position...say Senate majority leader. This would be a good thing for immediate "stimulus", even though the environmental impact reports for such a project would not be completed until well after the next presidential election!

Corporate jets are a sign of decadence and must be shunned as excessive wastes of money before companies can receive stimulus.


So, take a thriving industry that employs highly trained engineers and skilled workers, that produces a high end product that generates high paying jobs for both building and support, which creates high taxes for both the product and the salaries of all involved and let's see if we can choke this domestic industry to death?
Good plan!

Change the successful "Welfare to Work" provisions of the Clinton administration.


Yes. Nothing says inflation like requiring fewer people to produce anything in the economy while paying more to achieve it!

Put a salary cap on corporate executives and eliminate bonuses.


This is brilliant! A) Many companies will not have the government dictate what compensation they pay, for fear of losing their top performers to industries not taking the government money. It will cause many companies to turn down the POS, thus freeing up money for pork in other places!
B) Some companies will find ways to compensate their performers in ways not called "salary" or "bonuses". ("Stock options" comes to mind!) In this creative way, politicians can posture that they are for the "little guy" while only changing the nomenclature in their little hypocritical game.
Also, see: "whatever state, federal and local agencies tax the employees and profits of all of the above." This has already taken a toll on Wall Street where reduced bonuses have resulted in reduced tax revenues for NYC.
BTW, bonuses are an incentive to do above and beyond what your salary calls upon you to do. Take away incentive and productivity could fall. (See: "Inflation")

I'm sure there are myriad more lessons to be learned from this Piece of Stimulus, but I think I'll go do something to cleanse my mind from politics...maybe there's a sewer line somewhere that needs opening?

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

President Obama lambasted businesses that use taxpayer money to visit Las Vegas.

It’s okay, however, to use porkulus money to build pie-in-the-sky rail lines from Los Angeles to Vegas for Harry Reid’s benefit.
-Michelle Malkin

(A Hill staffer points out... that Reid and Obama are pushing for an $8 billion earmark in the conference report (shhh! there are no earmarks, remember?) to “construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the amount in the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday. Reid’s office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money.”)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

A Little Saturday Night Music

In honor of the holiday, here's Scott Kirby's
"Hard to Find a Hooker on Valentine's Day"

New Logo

What do you think? A bit much? I wanted to spruce things up a bit. Get away from the plain vanilla wrapper. Let me know what you think. I'm always open to suggestions.

And as I was unhappy with the first change, I've changed it again and may not be finished yet. Feel free to jump in when you see one you like!
-Proof

Obama Commemorative Coins - Caveat Emptor

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Let the buyer beware! (Had we only heeded that advice before the election!)


Sweetness and Light has video from a Portland TV station investigating complaints about these "commemorative coins", which are apparently just regular US currency with stickers applied to them! Here's an ad:



Caveat emptor...let the buyer beware!

"You've got to order quickly!"


Heh. Sounds like the stimulus package!

As Jerry Reid (no relation to Harry) once said, “He who expects little shall not be disappointed!”

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste

Barack Obama's Chief of Staff on never letting a crisis "go to waste":



Global warming a crisis? Let's use the opportunity to ramrod through distasteful and expensive programs the public would never put up with under normal circumstances.
Same thing with the Porkulus bill: Only the fear mongering spectacle of the President and Congress warning us of severe economic crisis if we "do nothing" could give any fig leaf to cover this naked power grab in spending a trillion dollars of your tax money to curry votes and political favors. Let's call it the ACORN/ Teacher's Union Full Employment Act of 2009!

Hat tip Moonbattery

Valentine's Poetry Corner

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"Don't make love
by the garden gate,
For love may be blind,
but the neighbors ain't!"

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Quote du jour

"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great."

-Roger de Bussy-Rabutin

Friday, February 13, 2009

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB is lingerie model Penny Lancaster!

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Jon Stewart Skewers Obama at the Press Conference

Got to admit there were more than a couple of laugh out loud moments here!




Hat tip Wizbang!

Triskaidekaphobics* Unite!

*Triskaidekaphobia: Unreasoning fear of the number 13!

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Happy Friday the 13th!

Quote du jour

The great sense of urgency of the Obama administration to get legislation to authorize slow-moving spending projects may seem inconsistent. But the urgency is real, even if the reasons given are not. The worse case scenario for the administration would be to have the economy begin to recover on its own before this massive spending bill is passed, reducing their chances of creating the kind of politically directed economy they want.

-Thomas Sowell

Thursday, February 12, 2009

CCW Permit Holder Suspended From University Carrying Firearm

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Not the weapon he was carrying!


In their continuing effort to make institutes of higher learning into shooting galleries for the criminal and the deranged, Western Oregon University, 62 miles south of Portland, suspended a 28 year old college student Jeffrey L. Maxwell, a Marine veteran, after it was discovered that he was carrying knives and a small Derringer firearm. He had not threatened anyone, nor brandished the weapons, but someone spotted a knife sticking out of his pocket and called campus security. From a KATU story:

Maxwell, who obtained his concealed handgun license from Linn County in 2006, was criminally cited by Monmouth police for possession of a firearm in a public building.

On Tuesday, Maxwell's lawyer received an e-mail from Polk County District Attorney Stan Butterfield saying prosecutors would not pursue the criminal charge against Maxwell.

"I believe the Monmouth Police Department issued the citation in good faith and that there was an arguable violation," Butterfield wrote in the e-mail, which was obtained by KATU.com. "However, a careful reading of the statute and the facts led me to conclude the charge was not in the best interest of justice."


But, that did not stop the school's disciplinary action.

A university student disciplinary panel determined Tuesday that 30-year-old Jeffrey L. Maxwell should be suspended until the end of the spring term despite the fact that he has a concealed handgun license.

Maxwell won't be allowed to re-enroll until a licensed mental health professional notifies the university that he is not a threat to himself or others, the panel concluded. The student must also write a 10-page paper that addresses the impact the possession of weapons on college campuses has on others as well as the importance of following the law.

Neither Maxwell, a Marine Corps veteran, nor his lawyer could be immediately reached for comment. However, the Oregon Firearms Federation, which paid for Maxwell's attorney, said the panel's decision will be appealed.


Aside from the ongoing debate on whether or not to allow licensed CCW holders to carry on campus, is the choice of graphic KATU chose for their story. The revolver shown is quite a bit bigger and holds more rounds than a typical Derringer:
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Two shots, short barrelled (meaning short range accuracy). The man had a rifle in his vehicle. If he'd wanted to go postal on anybody, I doubt he would have used a Derringer! Did they use this particular picture because it was more visceral? Many the story I've seen where the anchor/anchorette didn't know an automatic from a semi-automatic from a revolver.

We should, perhaps, consider inviting local newsmakers to the shooting range with us. They might enjoy it and they might learn a few things that could make them better informed when it comes to reporting on gun related stories.

Hat tip doug leier
Cross Posted at Say Anything

We the People...Could Do Better than Congress

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Rasmussen poll: 67% Say They Could Do A Better Job On The Economy Than Congress


Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress.


And yet, we're allowing these turkey to spend over a Trillion dollars (a figure higher than most of us and surely all of them can easily imagine!) on pork and unnecessary government spending. But then, I repeat myself!

Time to become a country of, by and for the people again. Vote out all the big spenders. Try to find someone to vote for whose only principle isn't "Me first".

Hat tip Suitably Flip
Cross Posted at Say Anything

News: It's a Serious Business!



Chicago WGN anchors Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange keeping their edge on the latest breaking stories...

Hat tip Hot Air

Ramirez on the Stimulus Bill

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Michael Ramirez is one of this country's most valuable natural resources!

Stimulus Delayed is Stimulus Denied?

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Porkzilla unleashed delayed another day


There will be no vote on the "Stimulus " package today. The opportunity to unleash Porkzilla to stomp on the dreams of financial security for the next few generations, like a man in a rubber suit stomping a model of downtown Tokyo will have to wait at least another day!

One of the benefits delayed: A new high speed rail train from LA to Las Vegas. Because while it may be sinful to take taxpayer money to fly there, going by rail with billions more in tax money is just hunky dorey! (Harry Reid: Your other face called. He left a message!)

Question of the day: Before spending a Trillion dollars in taxpayer money and mortgaging our kids and grandkids: Do you think any of the dilettantes in DC even read the entire bill?

Cross posted at Say Anything

Fly the Friendly Skies

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Swimsuit model hits new heights in popularity!


Sports Illustrated swimsuit model (and former Friday Night Babe) Bar Refaeli's image will soar on the side of a Southwest Airlines 737.

Politically correct people offended by pictures of scantily clad women should avoid airports for the next month...

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

-William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style,

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Medal of Honor

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Private Hector A. Cafferata, Jr.


Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company F, in action against enemy aggressor forces. When all the other members of his fire team became casualties, creating a gap in the lines, during the initial phase of a vicious attack launched by a fanatical enemy of regimental strength against his company's hill position, Pvt. Cafferata waged a lone battle with grenades and rifle fire as the attack gained momentum and the enemy threatened penetration through the gap and endangered the integrity of the entire defensive perimeter. Making a target of himself under the devastating fire from automatic weapons, rifles, grenades, and mortars, he maneuvered up and down the line and delivered accurate and effective fire against the onrushing force, killing 15, wounding many more, and forcing the others to withdraw so that reinforcements could move up and consolidate the position. Again fighting desperately against a renewed onslaught later that same morning when a hostile grenade landed in a shallow entrenchment occupied by wounded marines, Pvt. Cafferata rushed into the gully under heavy fire, seized the deadly missile in his right hand and hurled it free of his comrades before it detonated, severing part of 1 finger and seriously wounding him in the right hand and arm. Courageously ignoring the intense pain, he staunchly fought on until he was struck by a sniper's bullet and forced to submit to evacuation for medical treatment Stouthearted and indomitable, Pvt. Cafferata, by his fortitude, great personal valor, and dauntless perseverance in the face of almost certain death, saved the lives of several of his fellow marines and contributed essentially to the success achieved by his company in maintaining its defensive position against tremendous odds. His extraordinary heroism throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.


Pvt. Cafferata: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes




http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/living/living_war_wwii.html

There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Barry and Michelle Face Financial Crisis

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Would you buy a used economy from this man?


Let's say there's a young couple in middle America...let's call them "Barry" and "Michelle". B & M live in a nice little cottage in suburbia, with two lovely young daughters, a pot bellied pig and a minivan that's almost paid for.

One day, Michelle comes in and tells Barry that the minivan needs all four tires, but their credit cards are nearly maxed out and there's not enough money in the checking or savings account to cover the cost.

Barry tells her not to worry, because even though she and both her daughters and the dog are in danger of dying in a fiery crash at any second, Barry has it covered!

He spoke to his banker (a fellow who claimed his children's summer camp as a business expense) and arranged a line of credit. Barry intends to get all four tires at once, as part of a package deal on the new Lamborghini he's always wanted!

"Michelle," says Barry, "we can't just do nothing!" "Besides, it's got a trailer hitch to pull the new bass boat we're buying. And we can store the boat just down the street from the country club we're joining. Oh, and I'll need some new golf clubs!"

So, dear reader: If you were "Michelle", would your response be:

"No."

"Hell, no!"

or "I hope that line of bull works out for you with your next wife!"

The folks who tell us we're in the mess we're in because of bloated government spending want to increase government spending, without scarcely a fig leaf that there's any economic "stimulus" involved, and want to create massive government programs that will continue to be fed long after this president goes back to Chicagoland. And our children and their children will be saddled with excessive debt, while this government prints money and sends the nation into an inflationary spiral.

The talking point from the president and his flying monkeys goes "We have to spend a trillion dollars. We can't just do nothing" As if the only two choices available are "Spend a trillion" and "Do nothing". And even if there were no nuanced choices between the two, some economists have said that even doing nothing would be better for the economy that incurring all that debt, that even doing nothing, the economy would fix itself in a year.

The only problem with doing that, is politicians can't take credit for doing "nothing".

What's wrong with this picture????

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du Jour

The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.

-James Monroe

Quote du jour

I have said, with respect to authorization bills, that I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.

-Everett Dirksen

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Quote du jour

A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

- Everett Dirksen (adjusted for inflation!)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Quote du jour

With CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) in vogue, the future is all about dim bulbs!

-Proof

Quote du jour

"If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press ... will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before, he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide."
-Meg Greenfield

Quote du jour

Jesus picked twelve disciples. Barack seems to have gone more for one of those Dirty Dozen, caper-movie line-ups, where the mission is so perilous and so audacious that only the scuzziest lowlifes recruited from every waterfront dive have any chance of pulling it off.

-Mark Steyn

Sunday, February 8, 2009

SNL on the Porkulus Bill



Hat tip Sister Toldjah

The "One" is Down Ten: Obama Drops in Presidential Approval

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...according to Rasmussen!

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index for Sunday shows that 36% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing as President. Twenty-five percent (25%) Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +11.


Just one week ago, it was a slightly different story:

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

One week ago today, 44% Strongly Approved and 23% Strongly Disapproved to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +21.


The honeymoon is now officially over!

Hat tip LGF
Cross posted at Say Anything

Pulitzer Prize Winners on Why Geithner Was Worse Than Daschle*

Mr. Geithner not only signed a paper acknowledging he owed taxes, he collected money to pay the taxes and then didn't pay them and pocketed the money.
-Donald Barlett



Add to this witches' brew of tax evaders, the revelation that Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel received five years of free rent from a Washington power couple without reporting it as income to the IRS. They're claiming "hospitality" rules, but when you sleep it off after a party - that's hospitality. When you come over and stay for a weekend, or from out of town for a week, that's hospitality! When I live with you for five years, and you're not related to me, that's rent!

*So why is Daschle gone while Geithner is still here?

Hat tip Newsbusters

Coming Soon! Son of Porkzilla!

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Remember back a few decades ago, whenever a movie, particularly a monster movie, was a hit, the sequels would invariably be the "Son of"? Son of Frankenstein, werewolf, Dracula, whoever...anything to get the viewing public's butts back in the seats.

Democrats are planning the Son of Porkzilla. As if a trillion dollars in new government pork spending wasn't enough, the Dems are planning on spending any money trimmed out of the Porkulus bill in other Omnibus spending bills.



Starring Claire McCaskill, as the dimwitted ingenue whose only choices are spend a trillion dollars or do absolutely nothing! See Claire natter on about long term investments when the question was "I thought your guys said this needed to be immediate in order to be effective?"

John Ensign, as the plucky explorer who first encounters the beast (and if a Democrat is directing, probably gets eaten in the first reel!)
"If it's not going to be spent for two years, let's take it out and do it right!"


Barney Frank, as the funny uncle Spendsalot, Who doesn't want to kill the monster, because "the other guys had their pets, too!" What Uncle Spendsalot doesn't mention is that he and his trusted assistant Chrisdoddgor were in the basement actually building this monster for the last twenty years!

Mike Pence, as the hero and the only character out of this bunch (along with John if he survives) who should be in the sequel!

The video is really quite comical in that Barney Frank scarcely gets the words out of his mouth about how much wasteful overspending there was in the Bush administration, "bloated" was the word used, before the ditz McCaskill natters on about the "starvation diet" Bush had the country on, so naturally we have to spend more to catch up! Huh?? What a bunch of maroons!

My sympathies to the state of Missouri for having to put up with Claire McCaskill D-eMO. But, knowing what you've got, my disapproving condemnation if you ever pull the lever for this twit again! (Notice how much she blinks? Isn't this one of the signs of when people are lying?)

But, be clear on this: Every "cut" from the "stimulus" bill is going to find its way into another spending bill before year's end. Someone needs to drive a stake through the heart of this insane deficit spending!

One media note on the new host of Meet the Depressed: During this seven minute segment, he starts to interrupt Barney Frank (D) once, but stops. He interrupts and tries to talk over Mike Pence (R) twice. Coincidence? Or bias? Jury's still out.

Hat tip Gateway Pundit
Cross posted at Say Anything

Adorable and Dangerous

Poor TV anchorette at the mercy of those who were supposed to put up the right graphic:



Hat tip Gina Cobb

Quote du jour

"Compared to what our Creator wanted us to be, all men are clowns. And that's what we koshare do. We act funny to remind the people. To make the people laugh at themselves. We are the sacred clowns."

-Tony Hillerman, Sacred Clowns

Quote du jour

There are two kinds of people in the electorate:
1. People who remember how horrible the Jimmy Carter years were.
2. People who are about to find out.

-Gregory of Yardale

Hat tip Vocal Minority

Saturday, February 7, 2009

A Little Saturday Night Music

Jeff Wahl: Prairie Sky

Salary Caps for All on the Government Dole?

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The motion picture industry's record-setting month at the box office may have cost it $246 million in tax breaks, as the Senate on Tuesday stripped a provision from the economic stimulus bill that critics derided as an unnecessary Hollywood bailout.
-LA Times

Hmm. Had this bit of pork made the cut, I wonder if Porkmeister-in-Chief Obama would have required salary caps on all Hollywood talent?

Dennis Miller on Hillary and Blago



Hillary: "Cheated on more frequently than a blind woman playing Scrabble with gypsies" Heh.

Hat tip Newsbusters

Non-Union Need Not Apply

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"Look for the Union Label"


Obama "Bans" Non-Union Contractors From Government Contracts
Described as an act that discriminates against 84% of the work force, Obama signed an executive order that
"repeals Executive Order 13202, that prohibited federal agencies and recipients of federal funding from requiring contractors to sign union-only project labor agreements (PLAs) as a condition of performing work on federal and federally funded construction projects."


That's certainly a "change"! Not all change is good!

"Today's decision to repeal Executive Order 13202 opens the door to waste and discrimination in federal and federally funded construction contracts," said ABC President and CEO Kirk Pickerel. "This action removes the safeguards that prohibited discrimination based upon union affiliation in the awarding of federal contracts.

"Construction contracts subject to union-only PLAs are designed to be awarded exclusively to unionized contractors and their all-union workforces," said Pickerel. "Absent the economic benefits of competitive bidding, union-only PLAs are known to increase construction costs between 10 percent and 20 percent and discriminate against minorities, women and qualified construction workers who have traditionally been excluded from union membership.

"Union-only PLAs drive up costs for American taxpayers while unfairly discriminating against 84 percent of U.S. construction workers who choose not to join a labor union," added Pickerel. "All taxpayers should have the opportunity to compete fairly on any project funded by the federal government."


Payback from Obama to the Unions that supported his candidacy was to be expected, but like the gigantic Porkulus bill, this is far too much government money to be denied every hard working American who elects not to join a union!

Stimulate your political cronies, screw the rest of America. So much for "hope"!

Hat tip Gateway Pundit
Cross posted at Say Anything